IGBO DOUBLE MASK: IKENGA.

Phenomenal Transparency :: an ideogram hiding a parable.

an hieroglyph to read

Phenomenal Transparency

One can read this mask by connecting the front and the back of the mask simultaneaously.
We call transposition the process by which the complement of an idea, stated on one face is developed on the opposite face and vice-versa. We call transparency a process by which the iconographic shape reflects its alter ego at the opposite side of the face.

So we get a symbolic inscription matching the real and the imaginary with a complex meaning: an ideogram hiding a parable.
This figure has its equivalent in ancient Egypt inside the hypogees. The double figure matching a man and his totem, an animal, matching manpower and his ancestry, embodies the real person.

To perform such a program, the artist needs to outscore the mimesis, borrow from the poesis, so that a plastic ideogram becomes a powerful carrier of a concept transcending the figurative form.

Rotoscoping
This is a technology for projecting facial expression onto a synthetic face to give the impression of a real face which is moving. 
When they are not moving, these artificial faces are not different from a photograph.
When they are moving, an ambiguous motion is apparent: by separating the person from the motion (which cannot be done actually), one can project the face of one person onto the face of another.
A Way of Seeing
The sculptural quality of this double mask, which captures reality and is capable of representing the emotions, provides a way of seeing which is futuristic.

an Ikenga


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